I don't know, there's no player on the team that's untouchable to me, but I feel this deal may not be an overpayment per se, but may be an unnecessary payment. Rahimi is a promisng prospect and we should be holding on to our picks as much as possible to re-stock our admittedly weak pipeline, I'd rather gamble that Cooke could hold up in an offensive RW role as he did when he filled in for Bert, or that Bulis could fit in, or that Kesler will play like he's being paid...

THE SCORE: reports of "plenty of trade rumors floating around" involving the Vancouver Canucks potentially shopping for right wing help. One of the rumours involves Nashville's Scott Hartnell, who's an unrestricted free agent next summer.

Spector's Note: Hartnell would help, and his $1.75 million salary is affordable, however, the Canucks are already bumping up against the $44 million cap ceiling and would need to dump equiviliant salary - if not more - to make this work.

This is on Spector's site and he's pretty credible as far as eklundian BS goes. More than Cooke salary wise would have to go though....as you can see, Hartnell makes more.

the thing about spector is that he is not claiming to be an inside source for rumours. he is posting the most credible ones and making a comment on it and 99% of the time he makes sense as to why it would and wouldnt work. he just posts media reports of rumours

dal wrote:Rumor out there that the Canucks are interested in Scott Hartnell from Nashville. The report said the Canucks have offered Matt Cooke, prospect Ramhi , and a draft choice.

If there is any truth to this I pull the trigger right away

Hatrnell can play on the big Line, nice sub for Bertuzzi.

What you think

I actually like the trade idea (Cooke/Ramhi for Hartnell), but is that all it would take to get Hartnell?

Again - when Nonis makes these trades, there HAS to be a plan. Do the Canucks want to be an offensive powerhouse again? Do the Canucks want a well-balanced team (meaning - that we have superior 3rd/4th lines than other teams).

Make trades for a purpose. Makes trades for the purpose of building STRENGTHS. Don't make trades just for the sake of making trades.

Don't trade for players or sign players just to simply cover up weaknesses (i.e. band-aids).